a blog by wallace winfrey

In praise of achieving virtuosity

“If I look at the electronic music that does have some staying power, it is generally not based on surprise. It uses machines that have been available for a long time, driven by people with the desire to max out the use of these machines. Derrick May on a TR-909 is a techno virtuoso (check out The Beginning on The Innovator, Disc Two), but that didn’t happen overnight. He learned the machine in-and-out, spent enough time to learn what it does well (and where it sucks), then made extraordinary music. The TB-303 and Juno 60/106 have similar masters, and the Minimoog has spawned a few as well.”